(Editor’s Note: Apparently this blog post, like a number of others, were written but never moved out of the “Draft” state. You might see posts like this pop up that seem like they’re out of date order based on the number of elapsed days that I’ve been in China. 2017-11-16)
Normally paying the rent would not warrant a blog post, yet here one is! Why the occasion? If you remember my previous post on paying for things with WeChat — which is now working fine, btw — everything here money-related can be done via an app. Paying the rent means using my bank’s mobile phone app … Which is only available in Chinese!
So I tired again and again to figure out how to do this on my own, but failed. The system is not as straight forward as it is in the USA to send cash.
Once I logged into the app and began to enter the information, some of which has to be in Chinese and not Pinyin (English-like spellings of Chinese characters), there were too many differences to overcome:
- Ensuring the right bank was selected for where the funds were going
- Entering in the key code on a small external device the bank gave you
- Writing a memo to keep track of the payment, in the app of course
- Knowing how to save and send a fāpiao — official receipt — once the transaction goes through
Honestly, though, the key code was the most difficult part of all this. If it wasn’t for my apartment broker who was willing to help me out, I’d STILL be struggling with this! (Yes, that’s right … I’m a guy who doesn’t mind asking for help or even directions if lost!)
Just another fun adventure in China! But this adventure will only repeat four times a year; rent is paid quarterly here!